Academic and Behavioral Outcomes Among the Children of Young Mothers

Abstract

In this paper, we use newly available data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the effects of early motherhood on academic and behavioral outcomes for children born to early childbearers. We find that early motherhood's strong negative correlation with children's test scores and positive correlation with children's grade repetition is almost entirely explained by pre-birth individual and family background factors of teen mothers themselves. However, early childbearing is associated indirectly with reduced children's test scores through its linkage to family size (and thus to child birth order). We find a different pattern in predicting fighting, truancy, early sexual activity, and other problem behaviors among adolescent and young adult off-spring. For these behaviors, maternal age-at-first-birth remains an important risk-factor even after controlling for a wide range of background factors and maternal characteristics. These results highlight the diverse pathways through which teen parenting might influence subsequent child well-being and social performance.

Leaders and followers in adolescent close friendships: Susceptibility to peer influence as a predictor of risky behavior, friendship instability, and depression

“…In addition, close friends rated the target adolescents' close friendship competence using a version of this instrument that was modified to serve as a peer-report measure of close friendship competence (Levine, Pollack, & Comfort, 2001). These two scales were then combined to yield a single overall measure of adolescents' close friendship competence in the context of their best friendship.…”

A behavior genetic investigation of adolescent motherhood and offspring mental health problems.

“…In addition to the negative socioeconomic correlates of adolescent childbearing, the children of adolescent mothers are at elevated risk for diverse forms of psychopathology, including depressive and anxiety disorders (Hofferth, 1987;Moore, Morrison, & Greene, 1997), antisocial behavior, and other externalizing disorders (Jenkins, Shapka, & Sorenson, 2006;Levine, Pollack, & Comfort, 2001;Nagin, Pogarsky, & Farrington, 1997;Spieker, Larson, Lewis, Keller, & Gilchrist, 1999;Wakschlag et al, 2000). The disparity in adjustment between children of adolescent and adult mothers seems only to widen over children's life spans, with the most dramatic disparities evident in adolescence and adulthood (Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1986;Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987).…”

The long-run labour market consequences of teenage motherhood in Britain

“…2 Haveman et al (1997), using the PSID, report that children of teen mothers have less education and a reduced labour force participation. However, Levine et al (2000), using the data on the children of NLSY respondents, argue that lower test scores and grade repetition are almost entirely due to differences in family background and from less favourable socio-economic background, the causality of teenage motherhood on adult outcomes is debatable.…”